In what might be called a “revolt of the generals,” six retired Army and Marine Corps officers critical of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's management of the Iraq war have called for his resignation. President Bush's pointed response has been to reaffirm his confidence in Rumsfeld and, in effect, signal that no resignation is in prospect.

Winning a Pulitzer Prize is the brass ring of journalism. Nearly everyone in the profession aspires to it. But the Pulitzer for national reporting awarded yesterday to the staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service is about something more than well-deserved recognition from one's peers.

The report by the Task Force on UC Compensation, Accountability and Transparency can be summarized thus: high, low and nil. Convened by the University of California regents after the media revealed egregious pay practices, the task force acknowledges that UC must offer competitive compensation. But the way the administration has dispensed compensation for senior officials – notably in paying for sabbaticals and allowing unlimited paid service on outside boards – is “wholly unacceptable.”

Driving through sheets of rain across the Sacramento River last week, I looked out at the endless expanse of floodwaters creeping across the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and was awed by the new and spreading sea.